One Piece Anime: Wano Arc, Episodes 956-965

Another batch of Wano episodes! The Oden flashback starts!

If I had been looking forward and looking at episode numbers, I'd have cut off the previous batch of episodes at 956 instead of 955. Oh well!

Episode 956:

• I completely missed the hilarious visual gag of Big Mom drinking Oshiruko just like how Kaidou is drinking alcohol. 
• Dropkick!
• I completely forgot that Tenguyama shows up here to hand over Enma and Ame-no-Habakiri to Momonosuke. 
• Momonosuke immediately declining Ame-no-Habakiri does fit in nicely with how Momonosuke's big character arc in the Wano arc is him slowly, very slowly, developing confidence. He had the Udon prison scene as of now, but that's clearly not enough. 
• So Zoro does know that the blade from earlier in the arc is the Nidai Kitetsu. Hmm! 
  
• God damn the anime studio really loves Zoro. Look at how badass his purple demon aura and all the water splashing on him is. 
• I don't think I've seen too much of it other than Master Roshi from Dragon Ball Z, but I do kind of like the twist that Luffy's trainer, Hyogoro, is utterly outclassed by Luffy in terms of strength and power... but Hyogoro knows a lot about Ryu'o and Haki and can instruct Luffy in technique. It is admittedly kind of annoying that for the past dozen episodes, Luffy and Hyo just basically has their training scenes as filler, but that's besides the point. Thankfully, in this episode, it's over. 
• I don't think that extra scene of Zoro fighting with Enma is in the manga! But it definitely is, I feel, kind of important to emphasize that it took a bit of time for Zoro to master the sword. 
• Oh, right, Shinobu's brother (whose name got revealed in the SBS) shows up for a grand total of one scene here, looking at the prisoners in the Flower Capital. 
• So Tama is the one who made the badass kasa hats for the Scabbards! That's cute, and a great little tie-in with the Ace stuff. The Wiki tells me that this scene is original to the anime, so good job, people in charge of the anime!
• The foreshadowing is a bit more obvious here, but this is where Kawamatsu tells the other Scabbards information that Hiyori is alive... and at the end of this episode, Orochi gets that information.

Episode 957:

• 
  Outside-of-Wano scenes! Fujitora! The Reverie! Garp! Big News Morgans! Dragon! Blackbeard! I had a whole paragraph typed in here, but it's basically a great adaptation of the outside-of-Wano scenes chapter, which is always very hype-inducing. Pretty interesting, too, seeing how smooth the Wano team's art is for these non-Wano characters are.
• Morgans beating up the Cipher Pol agent isn't like, super-extended or anything, but it's extra epic and they added some Epic Anime Eye Glows to our favourite Big News albatross. 
• Wait, isn't like, Impel Down a place to torture prisoners? Why the fuck does Doflamingo get newspapers?
• Having Drake contact Coby in the 'let's see the world outside of Wano' episode/chapter was always a very, very cool and thematic little choice of scenes. 
• Seeing the past Shichibukai animated in the new style as the narrator talks about the half-dozen past Shichibukai are obvious filler but it's pretty good filler, isn't it? Just to see the shots of these characters animated by the new studio? That transition with Blackbeard gura-gura shattering the screen or us zooming into Doflamingo's sunglasses are pretty smooth. 
• How badass is Hancock's delivery of "we became the Shichibukai because we were strong!" as we cut away to all the other Shichibukai getting ready for battle? Still one of the highlights of this whole sequence. 
  

Episode 958:

• I love that this episode isn't even 'let's look at the explosive events around the world' like last episode, but just Sengoku sitting in a room talking and delivering some massive lore revelations to a bunch of nameless marines. But it's all huge bounty reveals and storytime about he legendary Rocks D. Xebec, and it's one of the biggest episodes/chapters of One Piece. 
• SENGOKU'S GOAT! SENGOKU'S GOAT! SENGOKU'S GOAT! SENOGKU'S GOOAAAATT! 
• I do find it interesting that both Sengoku and Akainu are basically 'we have no time or resources to put to Wano', considering some still-developing recent revelations in the manga...

Episode 959:

• I've always found it fun that we start off the flashback (kind of) with Oden as part of the Roger crew. And... we kind of really only know four or five members of the Roger crew well, but I'm pretty sure the Vivre Cards revealed the names and personalities of all the other background members. 
• Of course we start off act three with another shamisen sequence. It even segues into the real scenes of the performers doing a performance for the Fire Festival! 
• I don't think anyone back in the day really thought that the Straw Hats and the Scabbards' allies were really dead, but between the art and the music, they really do a good job at highlighting how desperate Kin'emon's group felt at the moment. 
• I do like how Ashura Doji is the most pessimistic of the group, instantly going 'look, even the weather shows we are abandoned by heaven'. Considering his backstory during the timeskip? Yeah, can't really blame him. 
• Luffy, Brook and Chopper do look pretty good in those kabuto samurai armour. 
• Sanji and Zoro dicking around about bounties and casually slicing off another chunk of the cliff is hilarious. 

Episode 960:

• I know I've been commenting on how Oden's completely-dark-and-silhouetted body has been shown in 'lightly shaded' all throughout the various flashbacks, but, uh, in this episode Orochi just vaguely imagines Oden and we get to see his un-silhouetted, un-shadowed full design. Not going to lie, since we're going to get the flashback revelation literally ten minutes later in this episode, it's a bit of a strange choice. 
• Oh, right, Okobore Town got burned alive. I completely forgot about that! Or, rather, I think that back then I handwaved it as 'they wouldn't really do it'. 
• I love that just for the sake of exposition, Oden's own father and one of the Kozuki retainers randomly decides to 'let us recap Oden's life from the beginning'. 
• We actually get to see Oden's feats when he was young -- like diverting the river -- animated in full glory as the retainer talks about them. That's neat!
• I keep forgetting past-Kin'emon was blond.

Episode 961:

• That Togen Shirataki attack that Oden used to slice up the Mountain God was awesomely animated. It's like something straight out of a mecha anime like Evangelion or something, only instead of a laser beam slicing across the screen causing a delayed explosion, this is a goddamn sword slash cutting down a kaiju-pig. 
  
• This flashback is really great at re-contextualizing lesser characters like Ashura Doji and Yasuie. We already know who they are from the present-day scenes, but seeing them in the past, or seeing where characters like Kin'emon and the other retainers started out, really does a lot at setting up the rich backstory of the Wano characters. 
• I love that Yasuie quickly realizes that 'Oden would've stolen the money openly'. 
• How bizarre are Kanjurou and Raizou's backstories? Kanjurou just hung around a graveyard and cut people's hair to make brushes? Raizou got rejected by a kunoichi and is now an outlaw? 
• I like the offhanded foreshadowing about how Kanjurou 'suffered persecution in the past'. 

Episode 962:

• Pretty obviously, the mostly-offscreen fight between Oden and Ashura Doji and his Kuri bandits is an actual scene in this episode. Oden even gets a new anime-exclusive named attack, 'Shimi Daikon'. It's another oden-ingredient pun! 
• Some really beautifully animated armament haki activation on the part of Oden.
• Love the transition from the full-colour shot of Oden and his retainers posing in front of a restored Kuri, and how it goes into a more stylized, period-accurate brush-drawn black-and-white painting in the Wano newspapers. 
• I guess it's because they're cartoon animals, but baby Kawamatsu, baby Inuarashi and baby Nekomamushi are adorable! The most adorable shot is Kawamatsu chomping on the spilled oden after Neko does his cat-tongue thing. 
• Oden just casually beat up the people trying to burn the minks with one of the giant kois he just caught in order to make oden soup.
• I also love the little explanation about how Oden is already aware about the Minks' existence because of the Kozuki/Zou treaty of the past. 
• I really do like the little training montage. Little Kiku teaching Ashura Doji to read; the sequence of everyone doing quick-draw exercises; Denjirou being the tutor of the group...
• Great use of music, using partial black-and-white colouration, and shadows to make the Akazaya Nine actually look fucking badass when they stride into town. 
• I always love that people who pay attention to the background characters of Whitebeard's massive fleet can spot the younger versions of characters like Whitey Bay, Rakuyo or Epoida among Whitebeard's crew here. They don't really do anything, but it's nice consistency. 

Episode 963:

• I love how the Oden flashback is structured -- they show him initially filled with wanderlust and a desire to set sail before taming Kuri and gaining his retainers... but even after maturing, he never quite lost his desire to set sail and see the world. 
• Kin'emon dyed his hair black at some point before this episode. 
• Oden and Whitebeard clash! It's pretty well-animated, and it splits the ocean. I do like the little purple aura that settles over the characters as Whitebeard senses Oden running towards them. Really love the scenes of Whitebeard and Oden running towards each other, too. 
• The clash of the two named attacks, and Whitebeard's subsequent cracking of the air as his eyes glow green... superb. I could just go on and on about how cool the animation of these fights are. 
• I like how one of Whitebeard's reason for rejecting Oden is how 'people with big egos don't get together well on a ship', citing the Rocks crew. A neat way to tie in a newly-revealed fact! 
• Whitebeard and Kin'emon fist-bumping in unison for not letting Oden leave Wano is hilarious. 
• So Marco does have his phoenix fruit at this point in time. I don't think Marco taking Izo on-board the ship was actually shown in the manga. 
  
• Toki does really look like Hiyori, doesn't she? 

Episode 964:

• 
  I love how "he's annoyed!" ends up becoming a running gag only in this flashback arc. 
• Karma! I like Karma. He's an octopus! I also like that the anime make it a point to note that Karma would later join the Whtiebeard pirates, since he sort of disappears from the flashback after this. 
• Whitebeard calls Oden as a 'little brother'. Wonder why he's not considered a 'son'? Is it just his age? 
• The perfect way to extend the episode a bit is to actually extend bit-by-bit to show Oden's bizarre adventure, showing more of the wacky islands of One Piece that the Whitebeard Pirates landed on. For example, Whitebeard actually beat up that one random giant that they meet. 
• I love how Marco, Jozu and Vista are basically going 'd'awww' on the side as Oden and Toki are flirting. 
• I also really like how Oden learns about the greater world outside of Wano through this journey, learning about the organization that governs the world, or the fact that Wano is still a free country. 
• I think it's intentional that "Sukiyaki" and his voice acting is actually kind of stilted -- particularly his coughing -- in the scene where he names Orochi as his successor. 
• The birth of the division commanders! 
• Blackbeard joining the group is actually somewhat extended! 

Episode 965:

• The Orochi episode! They do prolong Orochi being hunted down and persecuted as a child in the opening sequence, and... and if I didn't know what kind of a jackass Orochi becomes as an adult, I might almost feel sorry for him. 
• Grandma Kurozumi is scary. 
• They meet the Roger pirates! I really like how little Shanks is just casually wearing the straw hat. 
• Scopper Gaban! He dual-wields axes!
• Really like the cheeky grin Roger gives Rayleigh and Gaban when he runs past them to fight Oden. 
• Roger's 'Divine Departure' one-shotting Oden into a mountain isn't that impressive, all things considered. The clash between Whitebeard and Roger, on the other hand? With the lightning and thunder and the blades not touching each other? The zoom-in to their eyes? The cube explosions? The brief scenes of black-and-white? Damn!

___________________________

That's ten episodes this time! I think we'll get through the entirety of the Oden flashback in the next batch of episodes. 

What If, Season One Review (Part 1)

Marvel's What If?, Season 1

I really didn't care all that much about this show when this was mentioned, let's be honest. It's an MCU project, but it just... tells standalone tales about weird 'for want of a nail' fanfiction moments? I've always been a low-key fan of these sort of standalone stories, admittedly, and have read my share of 'what if' timelines in DC and Marvel comics. But as part of the MCU, I had originally thought that it was a bizarre usage of a 'slot' in an honestly ever-increasingly hard-to-keep-up fictional universe. We used to have a couple of movies ever year, now we have that and multiple TV shows? And it's non-canon? But that's just me being a sourpuss, because this show was definitely a lot of fun. 

But then, being standalone also has the benefit that the contents of What If? is completely optional and there's no rush for audiences to go and watch it or they'll be missing out on some subtle thing or other for the next big MCU project. And, more importantly, when trailers started to really come out, the fact that a majority of the roles are going to be the MCU actors reprising their characters... it's definitely pretty interesting! It's not just 'lol let's see this character be that character' all the time, because in some of these episodes we get to see some characters who died a bit too early in the MCU movies actually be brought up into... well, a what-if scenario, for lack of a better term. 

As a side-note, each and every episode is narrated by the cosmic entity Uatu (voiced by the excellent Jeffrey Wright), a familiar face to most Marvel fans. Uatu himself doesn't really have too much of a role beyond being a narrator, but having a narrator is definitely important to contextualize some of these episodes. The animation is very crisp for being cel-shaded CG models, and while some of the faces admittedly do look a bit weird, the show as a whole is nice. The voice-acting... not all of them work as well, and I suspect it's because some of the live-action actors aren't as used to working in voice-acting; but there's nothing too jarring for me to point out. There's also a metric ton of Easter Eggs in every single episode, whether it be references to MCU movie events, random props or minor characters popping up here and there, and stuff. This'd honestly be the place to do it. If I was still doing episodic reviews, I probably would've had a field day with this show. 

It still took me a while to watch through them, and I wouldn't really call them all that necessary to the whole proceeding of things. This will cover the first half of the season -- I intended it to have every episode on a single page, but turns out that, well, I ramble a lot. 

Episode One: What If... Captain Carter Were the First Avenger?

The first episode isn't particularly a creative concept for me, mostly because, well, as I mentioned above, I do consume a fair amount of superhero material, and with that also includes Elseworlds/What-If stories. Peggy Carter becoming Captain America isn't even strictly new -- a bunch of video games (admittedly mobile games) have done it, and we've gotten a bunch of different female Captain Americas over the comic-book history. Hell, giving Peggy Carter some spotlight isn't even new -- we've got two seasons of Agent Carter as one of the very first MCU tie-in shows, tragically terminated before its story could reach its proper conclusion. 

And... and that's more or less what happens here. Uatu the Narrator gives us a quick talk about the premise of the show, and after some faithfully-recreated shot-by-shot scenes, we jump straight to where the timeline diverges. Peggy gets into the super-steroid-vita-ray machine instead of Steve Rogers, and ends up becoming the super-soldier instead. It's the easiest and most classic alternate-universe superhero story idea ever, but as the first episode, being basic isn't all that bad. Most of the story in this episode essentially follow the plot of Captain America: The First Avenger only with Peggy in the place of Steve, some additional character concepts that are definitely easier (and cheaper) to do in animated format than live-action format, and a whole lot of wink-wink-nudge-nudge jokes on the canon timeline. 'Sacred Timeline', I guess, since we've got that term from Loki. Ha ha, Bucky almost fell off the train and he makes a joke about losing his arm. Stuff like that. 

And this episode is mostly... it's mostly slow-paced. There's the almost obligatory but very logical plotline of Peggy having to deal with misogyny (and having seen it twice over in Agent Carter, it's the same feeling I get when I saw Peter Parker being bit by that spider again in Amazing Spider-Man), but things kind of go a bit more off the rails. Not being a live-action show lets the animators be a bit free in over-exaggerating how Captain Carter (she doesn't get to become "Captain Britain"?) tosses trucks around. And hell, sickly ol' Steve Rogers even joins in the war effort because in this timeline, Howard gets the Tesseract and is able to build an Iron Man HYDRA Stomper suit for him. Their romance is preserved, which is kind of sweet. Ultimately this mini-movie ends with a desperate Red Skull summoning a giant eldritch tentacle-monster from space (a somewhat similar thing happens to the Hydra from the animated Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes) and this being the huge thing that Peggy stays behind to fight in her huge heroic sacrifice moment. 

It's competently done, and Hayley Atwell is a delight to see as ever, but, well, this one's kind of basic. Beyond pointing out more Easter Eggs and praising the performance of the voice actors, I honestly don't have a whole ton to say here.

Episode Two: What If... T'Challa Became A Star-Lord?

This was probably the one that everyone was talking about, because... well, it was Chadwick Boseman's final performance as Black Panther. He recorded his dialogue for this episode before his untimely death, and this episode is rightfully dedicated to the actor that brought the character to life. And on paper, it's another "what if X character was Y character instead?" And... and I wasn't the biggest fan of this episode's concept, I'm not going to lie. It sounds like a crack fanfiction, but, again, the writers proved me wrong because this episode was pretty dang enjoyable. 

T'Challa gets to become Star-Lord in this continuity because, in this continuity, Kraglin and Taserface were the ones in charge of kidnapping Peter Quill and nabbed T'Challa instead. And T'Challa ends up staying with the Ravagers and becoming Star-Lord... but an actual famous outlaw of the galaxy, someone that everyone knows about, a fun pastiche on one of my favourite MCU memes -- Korath's epic "Who?". But I was still a bit hostile to the concept until the episode itself actually peeled away all my questions on why T'Challa would even stay with the Guardians at all. It's no big leap to say that T'Challa always wanted to look to the world beyond the closed borders of Wakanda, but he's always struck me as a very responsible prince. Even if he was delighted with the aliens, wouldn't he want to go back to Earth? Well, Yondu told T'Challa that Wakanda was destroyed, because he wanted to 'keep' T'Challa as his son, so to speak. And then at the end of the episode, T'Challa gets to go back after sorting things out with Yondu, not forgetting about the legacy of his homeland. It's a running sub-plot that goes in the background of this otherwise over-the-top crazy episode, which I feels really helps in grounding this episode in the fact that the main character is T'Challa. Again, though, without making this one run for too long, all the wacky continuity wink-winks are neat and all, but it wouldn't be that good of an episode if we didn't have T'Challa's arc of seeing who his family is, and what his roots are. That moment when he finds the Wakandan spaceship is easily the strongest part of this episode. 

As with anything relating to the MCU's cosmic side, this episode was a lot more nuts-to-the-wall crazy than the previous one, which was mostly serious. From the moment when Korath fanboys over Star-Lord T'Challa, we increasingly make the gags funnier and funnier. T'Challa apparently talked Thanos down from a Mad Titan to a reasonable low-key gangster here, and both Fanboy Korath and Gardener Thanos sticks around as part of the Ravager crew. Nebula (with hair!), free of Thanos's abusive parenting, gets to become a femme fatale member of the underworld. Drax is a bartender, the Collector killed/beat half the MCU cast off-screen, and the Black Order are glorified security guards... it's manic in the fun way that the Guardians of the Galaxy movie is manic. I particularly like this episode where it seems like some characters are just going to show up for a gag, but they extend the gag into how the character would be. 

It's a heist show, and heist shows are fun. Especially when this incarnation of the Collector (one of those 'underused characters' I talked about before) is a lot more chattier, and has revealed that he's got a whole ton of stolen weapons from MCU characters like Hela, Korg, Thor, Malekith, Captain America, and many others. The Black Order, a bunch of one-note mooks with fun designs that I've always had a huge soft spot for, end up getting a pretty fun role here, too, as minions of the Collector. And we even get a logical 'yeah, some other things proceed badly, shrug' moment when Uatu casually shows that without the events of the two Guardians of the Galaxy movie, it does mean that Ego is free to abduct a completely human Peter Quill for his plans of universal domination. 

Episode Three: "What If... The World Lost Its Mightiest Heroes?"

Where the concept of the previous episode does feel like something special, though, this one... is a bit less derivative? I did laugh a lot when the first huge change is shown to the audience, admittedly. But this one feels a lot less interesting than the previous one. Someone is killing off all the Avengers one by one during the events of the 'big week' of Iron Man 2, Thor and The Incredible Hulk, leaving Earth vulnerable as Nick Fury, Black Widow and Agent Coulson try to fix it. It's an interesting mystery problem, and it turns out that the villain is Hank Pym as Yellowjacket -- a nod to Hank's comic-book instability. And I don't actually have a problem with that. Casting Pym as a villain is interesting, and there are indeed some bread-crumbed clues on how it's someone with Ant-Man powers doing stuff. What's not made clear, however, was the bit of a random revelation that Hope van Dyne is a SHIELD agent who died in this particular timeline. 

The rest of the episode is competently done, at least, and I really did particularly like Loki in this episode. There's a sense that while he's doing a lot of grandstanding, at the very least part of his outrage at Thor's death is real. We all know Loki's a bit of a softie. At the end of the episode Loki lays a particularly badass beatdown on Yellowjacket Pym with his illusion powers, too, and in the middle of it he loses his composure when Hank dismisses Thor's death. It does feel like perhaps this episode was stretched a bit too much? I'm not quite sure what made me a bit too restless in this episode compared to the other two. 

Episode Four: "What If... Dr. Strange Lost His Heart Instead of His Hands?"

Another relatively predictable one, I feel, but one that is elevated beyond its concept. It's probably one of the easiest 'what if' prompts ever, right next to 'what if a supporting character is the hero instead' -- what if someone that's normally a superhero ends up becoming a supervillain? It's never something that's going to happen in the mainline MCU movies, considering how hard they have been in pulling back any sort of implication that the MCU heroes like Nick Fury or Iron Man could have any sort of moral gray area, but in a show like What If, they definitely can do it. 

In this episode, the point in time that changes is that Christine Palmer was in the car that Dr. Strange was driving in that fateful day, and instead of his hands, the casualty of that car crash is Christine herself. This leads to a moment after the events of the Doctor Strange movie where Dr. Strange ends up deciding to reverse time to save his girlfriend... only to fail again and again. Turns out that Christine's death is an 'Absolute Point', and because of the paradox that it will cause, the universe itself basically ensures that her death would happen. A different car crash, a freak fire accident, a mugger... it leads Dr. Strange into spiraling into darkness, looking for other sorts of magic that leads him into ultimately going into an ancient library and doing rituals to consume demons and otherworldly beings (including the tentacle monster that ate Red Skull in episode one) for centuries. 

Not the biggest fan of the third act, with the revelation that the Ancient One split the timeline (and the Dr. Stranges) in half, leading to a 'good Strange' vs. 'Strange Supreme'. I get that it's there to give some action before the finish, but I felt like it's a bit of a distraction. At least we get those Jack Kirby energy-beam warbles, which I thought was cute. Ultimately Strange Supreme dispatches of 'good Strange', absorbs him, and actually manages to resurrect Christine... leading to the paradox that causes the utter annihilation of their universe, leaving Strange Supreme alone in the small bubble that remains of that particular universe. In an interesting manner, Uatu actually interacts with Strange Supreme, albeit in the form of a conversation, basically telling him that this is all his fault. 

It's not the most original 'what if' storyline out there, but I think what elevates this beyond its concept is how well done Benedict Cumberbatch's voice acting is here, really exploring the various facets of the Dr Stranges we see in this episode. Plus, the particularly despair-inducing bit in the second act where Christine Palmer just keeps dying is executed pretty damn well. A very interesting 'bad timeline' for sure. 

Episode Five: "What If... ZOMBIES?"

When I saw the title of this one, I was pleasantly surprised. The previous four episodes seems to just be straight-up alterations of pre-existing MCU movies, but this one felt like something a lot more different. Because, well, zombies! Taking place in the first act of Avengers: Infinity War, we see Bruce Banner arriving on a different Earth, witnessing zombie versions of Iron Man, Dr. Strange and Wong brutally murdering the Black Order and turning them into zombies. We learn later that it's because of the events in Ant-Man and the Wasp (so this movie does double duty on the parody front), where the Pyms' entry into the Quantum Realm eventually caused the spread of a zombie virus into the rest of the world, leaving only a handful of heroes uninfected. 

Not the biggest fan on the Zombieland parody orientation video, but the rest of the episode was pretty neat. We toss together a bunch of characters (Spider-Man, Wasp, Okoye, Bucky, Happy Hogan, Sharon Carter, the Cape of Levitation and Ant-Man's buddy Kurt) and have them fight against a bunch of zombies. The first half is pretty typical "let's you-and-you fight" with no real consequences, because some of the people are zombies, and this is an alternate universe anyway so the showrunners get to kill off whoever they want. As a surprisingly upbeat Spider-Man himself also notes, we go through a lot of zombie apocalypse tropes as well. The cast gets whittled down, one of the cast gets infected via a cut and pulls off a heroic last stand, a seeming ally turns out to be a psychopath that's feeding people to a zombified loved one... only except these characters are all MCU characters, which is where the black comedy comes in. 

Some pretty neat things that happen here include Bucky actually getting the Captain America shield ('Captain Bucky' probably will never happen in the primary MCU since Sam gets the shield there). And I think this is the first time Spider-Man ever says 'Uncle Ben' in the MCU? Wasp also gets to activate the Giant-(wo)man abilities of her suit. We get a (zombie) Scarlet Witch vs. Hulk fight. We get Scott Lang reduced to a head in a jar (all this accomplishes, really, is to allow Paul Rudd to say Paul Rudd lines). We get a homage to the original Marvel Zombies with someone catching Black Panther and using him as 'takeout'. Black Panther is actually voiced by Chadwick Boseman here, and it's kind of poignant that he gets a line in this episode is about how death is not the end.

The episode kind of ends abruptly with the survivors escaping two waves of zombie Avengers and a zombified Scarlet Witch, going to Wakanda to make a cure, not realizing that zombie Thanos is already there. (Don't ask how he's in Wakanda, trying to analyze this particular episode too hard is going to give you a headache -- just accept the funny and move on) I did feel like the tone of this episode does feel a bit 'off', with gruesome deaths jumping straight into comedy. It's fun, but ultimately it's a pretty all right alternate universe.

Movie Review - Venom: Let There Be Carnage

Venom: Let There Be Carnage [2021]

I know, I know, a bit late to the party, but that's what happens when you can't really catch cinematic movies when they are aired because of pandemic restrictions and whatnot. 

I actually did really like the 2018 Venom movie. Well, I mostly really liked Tom Hardy's dual performance as both Eddie Brock and Venom, and how the movie ended up somehow working as a violent action comedy on a different spectrum from its also-violent brethren Deadpool. And... and Venom: Let There Be Carnage delivers more of the same thing as its predecessor, save for the fact that the antagonist is changed almost whole-cloth from the more epic alien invasion of Riot to the psychotic serial killer that is Cletus Kasady/Carnage, one of the most anticipated characters to be associated with Venom and Spider-Man in general. 

And I'm not going to lie, I'm enough of a comic book geek to know that the creepy CGI fight between Venom and Carnage is worth the price of admission into a superhero action flick. So I did enjoy myself watching this movie, if nothing else. 

It's just that... for its 90-minute runtime, Let There Be Carnage doesn't really deviate too much from its stated plotline. It's a Venom movie where we get introduced to Cletus Kasady, the utterly lunatic serial killer, who bonds with the Carnage symbiote, and they fight. The movie does have a couple of very basic side-plots -- Kasady gets his girlfriend, the sonic-shrieking mutant called Shriek, as his sidekick; Venom and Eddie play up their wacky relationship to its expected next step, which is a break-up; and there's also the rather underwhelming sub-plot of Detective Mulligan trying to figure out what's going on.

That said, the runtime of the movie is also very short, and the movie never really tries to pretend that it's anything but a thrilling, super-fast action movie. Sure, there's the ultimate realization that Eddie Brock and Venom are good partners and they learn to work together in the climax of the movie. And the movie does go through the motions of giving both Eddie and Venom a character arc as they realize that they need the other... but it's a journey that's a bit besmirched by the fact that Eddie has a a symbiote-powered serial killer gunning for him; while Venom can't keep any of his hosts alive (other than Chen and Ann). So there's a literal, physical need that the two have to reunite. 

Admittedly the movie does play up their ultimate reunion as more of a comedic moment, but still, I really did wish that there was more? Of course, playing up the 'we could see Venom and Eddie's relationship like a romantic couple on the outs' up to eleven is a pretty fun choice for the writers and filmmakers. 

Of course, the poster show off both Venom and Carnage, and the Carnage side of the equation is interesting. Played by the excellent Woody Harrelson, Cletus does really give the vibe of a complete nutjob who's going to either shank you or talk politely to you on a whim. I know enough comics to know that Cletus is a complete and total psychopath through and through, and any attempt for him to deflect and tell a sob-story is 100% bullshit. I'm not sure why he's obsessed with Eddie Brock being the one to tell his story in the beginning of the movie -- although after Eddie's little crime-solving bit aided with Venom, Cletus's obsession with him is definitely warranted.

Maybe in an attempt to humanize Cletus or to give him a secondary goal beyond revenge, Cletus's primary goal in this movie is to be reunited with Frances "Shriek" Barrison, the only person in the world he even remotely likes, and for what it's worth, the movie does a pretty good job at showing that Frances is as much of an unhinged lunatic like Cletus is. The crux of the problem is that Frances's Shriek powers absolutely pisses off the Carnage symbiote, and that's what drives a wedge between Cletus and Carnage's partnership in the climax.  It's just kind of a shame that for a movie where the climax hinges on the three-way disagreement between Frances, Cletus and Carnage, two of them are a pretty flat character -- Frances is well-acted for what little screentime she has, but she never really shows much personality beyond being crazy and being in love. And the Carnage symbiote is honestly more of an extension of Cletus... except when he's not. 

Ultimately the movie ends up going for a superhero classic -- the hostage climax. The Bonnie-and-Clyde pair kidnap Detective Mulligan and Ann Weying, leading Eddie, Venom and Dan the Doctor to go and fight them. Of course it happens in a church! Again, the Mulligan storyline is really something that does feel more like a distraction than anything. Sure, the movie seems to intend to set him up as another symbiote-superhero later on down the line, but neither his friction with Eddie nor his vendetta with Shriek really amounts to all that much. 

The actual Venom/Carnage fight, as I mentioned above, is something that I unabashedly enjoy. Sometimes you enter an action movie, and you just want an action movie, you know? It's full of one-liners, comedic drops, and unabashedly dramatically-appropriate lightning bolts to accentuate badass lines from the antagonist. And honestly, this is just such a fun movie to watch -- it's a great bonus that Venom and Carnage are so much easier to tell apart due to their differing colours, body-builds and even the texture of their 'skin'. It's a common complaint that Riot looked a bit too similar to Venom in the first movie's climax. 

It's a fun, short ride, I guess, is what I'm saying. Go in for the special effects and action scenes and comedy, and you really won't be disappointed -- it's not trying to be too different from the formula, and while most of the audience are either too used to the MCU formula or bored of superhero movies in general; I, for one, did enjoy my symbiote-fighty-fighty action movie. 

And, of course, there's that genuinely surprising mid-credits scene at the end, which promises for... bigger and greater things!

Marvel Easter Eggs Corner:

• Not really going to go over Carnage and Shriek's backstories in the comics because the movie does a decent job at going through it, but Patrick Mulligan is also known in the comics as the first Toxin -- which is what that random scene with his eyes glowing is all about.
  
• Notable, though, that while not called a 'mutant' outright, they did talk about Shriek's 'mutations'. 
• The recurring gag of "Lethal Protector" is the title of a six-issue Venom miniseries released in 1993, which solidifies Eddie Brock/Venom's transition from villain to antihero. 
• Shriek is kept in the Ravencroft Institute, a recurring location in the Spider-Man comics; which is actually most commonly associated with Carnage. 
• Mulligan reads a newspaper from the Daily Bugle.
• Cletus crushes a spider that runs around his desk when writing a letter for Venom, a wink-wink nod to how Venom and Carnage are technically Spider-Man enemies.
• And, of course, there's the post-credits scene, where Venom and Eddie found themselves tossed into the MCU universe, seeing J. Jonah Jameson's proclamation about Spider-Man and Peter Parker as seen in Spider-Man: Far From Home's final scene. I haven't watched that movie, but presumably this is caused by the events of Spider-Man: No Way Home. 

One Piece 1033 Review: Cursed Swords

One Piece, Chapter 1033: Shimotsuki Kozaburo

An interesting chapter, although probably the revelations done here isn't something that would be particularly groundbreaking for anyone who's been following the supplementary One Piece materials like the SBS and the databooks. "Not going to cover this in the manga" my ass!

The chapter mostly focuses on the Zoro/King fight, and King kind of is mocking Zoro over him being 'killed by his own sword' because Enma is drawing away his Haki while he's in a live-and-death situation. We also get to see another ability that the chapter implies to be from King's Lunarian heritage -- where Zoro stabs him in the gut and it instead causes a huge explosion that engulfs Zoro. So that BDSM gear isn't just for show? Queen takes the scene after this to basically confirm what the readers have already guessed -- King is a Lunarian, and his race used to be considered as gods before they were wiped out. Following this manga weekly, it's probably not immediately obvious that this is just the community's theorizing and not actually confirmed within the story itself. 

We get a very badass panel of Zoro doing Lion Song Requiem (or whichever translation for Shi Shishi Sonson you prefer), but King just does his stupid Tempura Udon face-pull-beam attack again, seemingly unscathed by Zoro's attack. Enma chooses that time to draw Zoro's Haki again, causing him to get blown away by the shockwave that also demolished a huge chunk of Onigashima's rocks. 

Zoro goes to grab his falling swords, and we get some flashbacks to previous chapters relevant to Sandai Kitetsu and Wado Ichimonji -- when Zoro received Sandai Kitetsu from the Loguetown seller, and met its crafter; and when he begged to get Wado Ichimonji from Kuina's father. Zoro finally realizes something -- the oddity of how a swordsmith from Wano ended up in Shimotsuki Village. 

And as Zoro falls down from a barrage of wing attacks by King, Zoro flashes back to the whole 'sunnacchi' conversation he had with Momonosuke, and a proper flashback to how Shimotsuki Kozaburo, Kuina's grandfather, was actually an illegal escaper from Wano. We get to see little Zoro talking to 'Old Geezer', and... and again, the impact of this whole sequence is slightly lessened by the fact that Oda has actually outright said most of these in an SBS.

But Kuzaburo's words about swords is definitely going to be something that's going to be relevant to the fight going onwards -- Kozaburo talks about how swords exist only to cut people down, to take lives, and it's a swordsman's job to 'tame' the sword. Kozaburo talks about how 'cursed swords' is a bit of a misnomer, it's just the fact that the sword is serving its purpose exceptionally well. It's at this point that Zoro remembers Kozaburo's words about swords and their desire for taking lives, and how Kozabura's magnum opus is Enma -- God of the Underworld. 

As Zoro puts together all of these scattered information in his head, Zoro realizes that Enma is basically testing him -- testing his worthiness to 'tame' Enma. We've kind of seen this before, with Shisui initially being a bit of a 'problem child'. Zoro notes that Enma isn't acting out of malice, but it's just that Zoro's not living up to Enma's standards, because Oden was able to wield Enma while so much Haki was pouring out of him. And then Zoro resolves that he's going to go all out with all his Haki -- unleashing another blast of Conqueror's Haki that takes out all the random Beast Pirate goons trying to butt in. Pretty badass sequence, and the final panel with Zoro and his three swords facing off against King is also him showing that he can use that Conqueror coating thing that Luffy does? 

Overall, not much progressed in terms of the actual fight, but I feel like between the sword lore and a reaffirmation of Zoro's goals, we get a whole lot of content here. Again, it's character moments like these that really make people actually care for the characters in the first place, and I most certainly appreciate anything that gives Zoro more depth than just 'looks cool, kills fools'. Pretty cool chapter all around. 

Kamen Rider Revice E11 Review: Sakura Awakens

Kamen Rider Revice, Episode 11: Why Does the Invincible Sakura Need Power?

I think I really don't have that much time to watch television episodes nowadays, so I'm not going to try and force myself to "I need to watch two to four episodes in one sitting just to get a review article" out of it. In the next year I think this might be how I do things with TV? We'll see. I intended on having entire seasonal reviews for some of the CW superhero shows as well, but that might take some time as I figure things out IRL. I do have some articles that are slated for December, but turns out that I have a lot of stuff to do these next couple of months. It'll be interesting. 

We start off this episode (and arc, I think?) with a fun little montage of our heroes fighting a bunch of Deadmen in different locales, and apparently we've got a set of ten stamps all collected and stuff. Meanwhile, Olteca goes off to scout a 'saviour' type guy with a flat mask who talks about anarchic equality and stuff... but that's clearly just going to be a villain-of-the-week, so I'm much less invested in him than I am Aguilera scouting for Sakura. 

And it's interesting. Sakura's huge motivation is for her family to remain whole, as well as what she's going to use her karate powers for... something that Sakura's mother rather innocently tosses out, noting that her power is useless if she's going to be irresponsible like skipping class and stuff. Of course, Sakura being a teenager, brushes off everything with 'lay off, I'm fine'. Things are not fine, though, when Sakura gets a rider belt mailed to her. The show hasn't been giving Sakura that much of a spotlight, since it's all about Ikki and Daiji in the past couple of episodes, but it's an interesting easy shortcut for her to match up with all the problems that's tearing her family apart. 

She gets distracted in her karate classes, seeing visions of Aguilera and failing to watch her power... and ends up seeing that the assistant instructor in the karate dojo has a Vistamp in her bag. Sakura follows her and sees her palling around with Olteca to rob a bank, but, of course, she's got the reason that she's stealing money for her son's surgery. Aguilera quite literally beats Sakura and tosses her around, before mocking her that simply saying that she wants to save people is easy, but useless when Sakura has not enough power. Aguilera wants to trick Sakura into joining the Deadmans so she could have the power she wants. 

Meanwhile, Ikki and Daiji fight a big pink tentacle Deadman robbing a bank. They do a double rider kick and a double transformation, always neat to see, and they fight a constantly-regenerating pink Deadman that turns out to be a planarian! Those are very, very cool animals! Ikki and Daiji's fight has Revice showing off their Megalodon and Brachiosaur forms, while Kamen Rider Live gets to do some finishers while he's kind of baffled at his older brother's sheer energy. We get the CGI Brachio-remix form which... uh... it's not as stupid-looking as the others?

Sakura ends up following assistant instructor Oomori around and finds out her reason for working with the Deadmen -- she needs money for her son's surgery. She tells this to her family, bringing up the fact that Oomori needs this for her son... while Daiji is just kind of against using the Vistamps or allying with the Deadmen for anything evil, while their mom is just rather understandably angry that her daughter just got beaten up. Again, monsters are running around blowing up buildings and tensions are high, so the conversation that results -- Daiji and Mama Igarashi telling Sakura to stay at home because she doesn't have enough power -- is kind of a natural progression. Oh, if only they knew Sakura has been struggling with her powerlessness, right? 

Sakura's internal flashbacks to other people telling her about her powerlessness ends up awakening her own internal demon, and... again, just like Daiji's own envy towards his brother, I feel like this was done and executed pretty damn well. 

Turns out that Oomori is being essentially influenced by the host of the Planarian Deadman -- the shady cult influencer in the beginning -- who sends her to attack the only doctor capable of performing her son's surgery... except she's being duped into attacking a radiographer, and in desperation as Fenix comes in to arrest her, she enters the Phase Two contract and transforms into Planarian-Phase-Two. It's an interesting bit where the cult leader basically modifies the demon contract to make Oomori enter a contract with his Planaria demon... pretty neat stuff, and it keeps the Planaria cult leader for a subsequent episode.

Ikki and Daiji just go in to fight the powerful Phase Two Deadman, of course, because what else can they do? But we've seen how Sakura is always more focused on the emotions of the smaller people, and she ends up transforming into Kamen Rider Jeanne with the Cobra Vistamp to stop Oomori herself... except her transformation doesn't actually happen, her belt fails, and Ikki ends up taking the blow to protect her. 

It's obviously just the first part of a two-parter, but it's a really fun one! Daiji is pretty great and Ikki is fun, but I really do hope that the Sakura arc doesn't rely too much on a completely-evil demon half, and we actually see her struggle with her own inner conflicts. Pretty fun episode all around. 

Random Notes:

• George has an off-handed remark about how doing a remix form before he calibrates the Vistamp could be dangerous. Actual foreshadowing, perhaps? 
• Kamen Rider Demons shows off another genomix, this time using Ikki's Condor Vistamp. He grows a pair of purple wings that reminds me of Jin from Zero-One. I guess they are sharing Vistamps, which shouldn't be surprising, really. 
• The monsters that are quickly defeated in the opening montage are reused monsters from Lupinranger vs. Patranger. I actually watched that show! I don't remember these specific Ganglers, though, unfortunately. It's been a while. 
• The Deadman is a Planarian! That's one of the more obscure animals and I really do like it. The phase one version if particularly cool, I think, with the pink stuff just looking like a slipshod wrapping (or is it the true body of the creature coiled up into a mass?) with a bunch of creepy golden masks strewn about its body.
• As of this episode, it's actually not certain whether it's Aguilera or George who sends the Justice Driver to Sakura. 

One Piece 1032 Review: Pteranodons Hunted Like This

One Piece, Chapter 1032: Oden's Beloved Blade

A pretty fun chapter, I think, after the Sanji stuff in the previous chapter. This one deals more with the plot threads that have been going around in the background and giving them a bit more prominence. Marco and Izo witness and fly off to investigate the giant fire-demon that Kanjurou made, and... I think that Izou might get something to do? I've been talking about how Denjiro hasn't had anything relevant to do, but so is Izo. 

Meanwhile, the Yamato/Apoo/Drake/Numbers group basically clash with the Robin/Brook/CP0 group... because the latter just quite literally fell out of the upper floors into them. It's interesting to note that Fuga has a centaur-like lower body like a horse? And he's friendly with Yamato? There's an almost-hilarious bit where the CP0 agents seems to be caught up in the descending Kazenbou and it would be a hilarious but anticlimactic end if they just got caught up in a different attack and get burned alive. 

But of course, they get back up. And I haven't really been paying too much attention to the CP0 members as individuals, but I guess 'hairy mask with octopus mouth' and 'two mismatched eyes mask' dudes are guys that we really have to start paying attention to. In particular, the shorter, mismatched-eyes scar-masked CP0 guy seems to be the one that's most... aggressive, I guess? 

Interestingly, because Brook and Robin landed on Fuga and Fuga's just sort of running along, CP0 ends up facing off against Drake and Apoo. Their beef with Drake is simple enough -- they don't actually call the organization by name, but they clearly recognize him as part of SWORD and they want to get rid of him. Apoo, meanwhile, does the rather stupid thing of threatening to sell incriminating pictures of CP0 to Big News Morgans... I'm convinced that Apoo's just basically the Starscream of the One Piece universe. He gets stabbed in the neck for his trouble... 

except he actually gets back up because Apoo, as goofy as he looks, still knows Armament Haki. He does a 'boom' to protect Drake from a Shigan, and there we have the team-up. I guess Drake trusts Apoo's revenge-driven motivation now.  I do really want to see the story make good use of Apoo beyond just being a Kaidou lackey, so I'm actually happy to see him do something. Doubtful that Drake and Apoo are going to be able to beat CP0, but... I don't know. Maybe? It's kind of something that I wasn't expecting, because I was expecting a Robin/Brook-vs-CP0 moment, but maybe Drake and Apoo get something interesting to do here.

(I initially through Robin and Brook are stuck on Fuga's head, but they apparently jump off and are separated from CP0 by the Kazenbou's flames).

The second half of the chapter deals with Zoro vs. King, and... uh... I guess Queen and Sasaki aren't the only ones who are weird. Because dinosaurs in the One Piece world are just fucking weird, I guess. King is able to, uh... pull the crest of his pteranodon beast mode and launch a force out of it. Like a weird slingshot. Zoro describes it a a 'laser beam', and I absolutely love that this attack, in the original Japanese, is called "Tempura Udon". All of King's attacks end with 'don', because Pteranodon.

And it's different when it's someone like Queen and Sasaki, who are goobers, who claim shit like Triceratops Helicopters or whatever the hell Brachoicoilus is are somethings that dinosaurs do, but King has been so serious. And I absolutely like that King gets actually angry when Zoro things that being 'on fire' is also something that Pteranodons do -- the audience have basically already pieced together that it's part of King's Lunarian race, but Zoro doesn't know that yet. Zoro actually feels like he's having severe problems with fighting King, though the whole "he just got up from fighting two Yonko" thing is probably one of the biggest reasons why. Pretty interesting, it's been a long while since Zoro actually feels like he's exerting effort in his fights. He's throwing out his Black Rope Dragon Twisters and 360 Pound Phoenix and they're barely hitting King, but King's wings are so powerful and tough that Zoro's having trouble knocking him out of the sky. 

And then Zoro hears the music of a shamisen, and Enma seems to extract Haki from him. Simultaneously, Orochi hears the same music to see Hiyori, in her Komurasaki getup, play the same instrument. I have been wanting either Hiyori or Denjiro to be the one to end Orochi since they have some of the biggest narrative reasons to, so this is more of a 'oh, finally' moment than a big twist. But the big twist is definitely whatever relation Hiyori has to Enma suddenly behaving like that... I've never been someone who cares a lot about the whole 'cursed sword' or generally the sword stuff in One Piece, but this might actually be something genuinely exciting. 

Kamen Rider Revice E09-10: Evil vs. Vice

Kamen Rider Revice, Episodes 9-10

Been a while since I did any Revice watching. Catching up slowly! I do plan to maybe cover a second Kamen Rider show next year, but we'll see how my schedule holds up. 

Episode 9: Runaway Kagero! Igarashi Brothers... Collapse!?

Last time we left off, Kamen Rider Evil's identity as Daiji's demon Kagerou is exposed to Ikki and his family, and these two episodes essentially wrap it up. Still kind of felt like they could've played out the angst of the Igarashis finding out that Daiji's evil, but the angst at this point becomes 'how do we get him back' and 'how did this happen'. The parents are being kind of supportive and encouraging to Ikki, telling him to get Daiji back... but throughout these two episodes and the previous one, we are neatly building up to Sakura in the background with sullen looks. 

The dilemma here is that Fenix's commander Wakabayashi is dispatching Ikki to eliminate Daiji, and... and who knows what George is thinking? He claims to be 'pushing things along' and acts all wacky and stuff, and we do get a bit of an explanation in episode 10, but I think he just wants to see cool Kamen Riders emerge. The reluctant Ikki is contrasted by the (cool but kind of one-dimensional) Hiromi, who's pretty enthusiastic in his desire to eliminate Kamen Rider Evil. I do like that Hiromi doesn't actually gloat in his desire for vengeance or whatever, though -- it would've been so easy to write him that way, but he's pretty chill and even apologetic about it.

We then get a whole lot of action scenes, and Ikki's clearly very conflicted -- so much that Vice basically had to say 'Daiji, Daiji!' a lot of times to try and bug him so that he gets his head in the game. We get the frankly rather low-key debut of the Gaim-based kamakiri/praying mantis form... as usual, I did enjoy the action up until they did the terribly-CGI'd 'remix' form. 

Far more interesting is the conversations that Kagerou and Daiji have in their minds, with Kagerou reiterating that he was born from Daiji's inner desires -- whether he wants to admit it or not, there is a lot of jealousy brewing inside him towards Ikki. 

Later on in the episode, Sakura confronts Ikki and gives another point-of-view, being absolutely livid that all these people are trying to force one of her older brothers to kill the other one. I do really like how Sakura's putting her foot down about all this -- it's interesting that despite Ikki's confidence and cockiness in the previous couple of episodes, this situation has really shook him up so much. Sakura also gets introspective about how she had wanted to 'get stronger', but is seeing how strength is kind of tearing her family apart. 

Ikki's own monologues with Vice (and the completely unnecessary flashback to Daiji getting lost as a kid) is kind of well-acted, too -- the emotions going through poor Ikki's head isn't articulated super-properly, but I do appreciate it. In this situatoin, someone would have a mixture of different emotions running through their head. The third act gives us Ikki versus Kagerou, and Kagerou basically taunts Ikki -- very successfully, too -- and talks about how Ikki's success and never really realizing that Daiji is jealous is why Kagerou festered so much within Daiji's heart. 

...of course, while all of this is well done, it's also kind of rendered moot since Kagerou is a demon hijacking Daiji, and regardless of whether Daiji's frustrations are valid or not, the first priority here is to beat out the possessing demon. And so we end this episode with Revice going Kamakiri again to beat the shit out of Kagerou. 

___________________________ 

Episode 10: Older and Younger Brother, Believing Heart

The cliffhanger from episode 9 is resolved by Kagerou pretending to be Daiji for a bit, causing Ikki to hold back his finisher kick and tumble to the side. Kamen Rider Demons shows up, does his own finisher (which fails to do anything) before zipping off with Ikki. 

Sakura calls Hiromi's talk about 'we need to consider Daiji gone', and gets super pissed off that all this Kamen Rider business has thrown her family into chaos, fucking up Ikki's mental state and causing them to consider killing Daiji off. Sakura gives the very, very understandable comment of "what's the point of saving other people's families if your family is the price for it?" She storms off in a huff, and ends up later meeting -- and getting beaten up by Aguilera, who seems to want to use Sakura as her next 'sacrifice', so to speak. I'm not sure how her discontent at the whole situation regarding her brothers and Fenix is going to translate into being easily corrupted, but the next couple of episodes are probably going to explain it. 

Vice, meanwhile, ends up talking to Ikki in the hot springs, and in the guide of being a playful goofs, ends up dropping some heavy questions to Ikki. He tells Ikki that despite his constant statement of believing in Daiji, he clearly didn't, and has been focusing about how this all relates to himself. Of course, there's the plot convenience of Vice reassuring Ikki that, hey, Daiji's still alive, still exists and is still fighting in Kagerou's mind. That's... kind of a cheat, but this is a Sunday morning superhero show for kids. With Ikki's determination and faith in the real Daiji restored, the rest of the episode is just essentially a 10-minute confrontation. 

Kagerou unleashes the three Brachio Deadmen, and they face off against Kamen Rider Demons and Vice. Meanwhile, Ikki faces off against Kagerou one-on-one. Kagerou talks a lot about how it's Daiji's weakness and hatred that sustains him, but I guess Ikki basically ignores all of it. Ikki gives a big speech, apologizing to Daiji for not realizing how strong he really is... a point that I felt is underscored by the completely unnecessary flashback to Daiji being lost as a kid, and... kind of underscored by the fact that Daiji's just cooped up in Kagerou's mind all this time? I felt like this huge moment could've been done better. 

But Ikki's speech causes Daiji to start attacking Kagerou from inside, while Ikki transforms into the Zi-O based Brachio form. They do a Brachio Stamping Finish to blow up Kagerou... and this restores Daiji. Daiji ends up reversing his driver (which is apparently what George is after all this time) and transforms into Kamen Rider Live -- which I actually wasn't spoiled on. Kind of interesting that Daiji has a 'good' form. Daiji blows up the fused Brachio Deadman. Things seem to have a happy ending as the Daiji stuff is wrapped up. 

Not... not the biggest fan of how the arc ended. It's kind of the simplest and least interesting thing that I felt they could've taken this arc, but the fact that everyone already knows that Daiji's mind is still intact within Kagerou does kind of sap a lot of tension on whether Ikki, Hiromoi, Sakura and the others have to angst about whether Kagerou has consumed Daiji entirely or not. Not the biggest fan of the resolutoin either, or maybe it's just me not getting how the whole lost-in-the-mountains flashback ends up feeding into the Ikki/Daiji dichotomy? It's well acted and the acting is earnest, though, and I really did feel pretty invested in the storyline -- it's just that they probably could've had better buildup and arranging the plot points. 

Random Notes:

• Demons is kind of in the background fighting the Brachios and is honestly kind of just there for the action scenes. A good narrative tool, but he's kind of irrelevant to these episodes? We get to see the debut of his 'Mogura Arm', which reminds me a lot of Kamen Rider Birth. 
• Apparently he's 'bawling like a baby' in his mind in episode 10? I'm... not sure what to make of it. 
• Kagero essentially holds a crew of small-time swindlers hostage and uses them as the source of the three Brachio Deadmen that rampage as the goons for this two-parter. It's... it's neat that we have this sub-plot, I guess? The antagonistic focus is so much on Kagero and Daiji that I kind of forgot that this sub-plot existed until I rewatched the episode for the review, to be honest. 
• Where did the Mogura Vistamp show up? I don't pay too much attention to where each plot device is tossed around, but unless I missed something, I don't think we ever had a Mogura Deadman, did we?
• They look very nice, but neither the Kamakiri nor Brachio forms really do anything special or homage-y. I guess the Kamakiri form uses swords like Gaim, but that's about it. 
• The core Deadmans are mostly just in their base complaining about Kagerou, other than Aguilera's little stunt in episode 10. 
• I gloss over it a bit, but that Kagerou monologue at the end of episode 9? With how Daiji finally found a place to shine, and Ikki had to show up there and essentially usurp his spotlight? You really do feel for poor Daiji, don't you?
• I guess I'm just growing a bit old, but I really am deadpanning towards a lot of Vice's antics. The hashtag stuff in episode 9, or the little skit he did in the beginning of 10 really did nothing for me.
• Oh, okay, 'Live' is 'Evil' backwards. I got it. I got it now. 
• So I guess they heard everyone's comments about the Kamen Riders not doing any 'riding' in the show itself, and is committed to showing Ikki and his bicycle? If they can't film motorbikes, bicycles are the next best thing, I guess? 
• Because episode 10 features the debut of Kamen Rider Live, Evil's transformation in that episode is suddenly accompanied by a giant CGI bat that envelops him.